In the minutes following McNeese State’s 41-10 shellacking of Lamar, the final game of Lance Guidry’s first season, the 45-year-old Welsh native gave a deep sigh.
“Personally,” he said, “I need some rest. I’ve been through a lot of stuff this year personally.”
Assessing Guidry’s first season as a full-time head coach, a 6-5 showing doomed by two fourth-quarter losses he maintains “we thought we should have won,” is complex. The team’s defense — playing the first six games without Dominique Hill, one of its most veteran members — fell well below standard.
The offense was unlike any seen in recent memory, setting a school record for passing yards per game. Quarterback James Tabary set new school records for pass completions and attempts while falling 33 yards short of breaking Blake Prejean’s single-season record set across 15 games in 1997. Tabary played in 11.
Inevitably, though, talk centers around those two aforementioned losses to Stephen F. Austin and Southeastern Louisiana — games McNeese either had in a tie or led in the fourth quarter. The loss to the Lions, on a tipped, 82-yard touchdown pass with eight second left, was the Cowboys’ sixth game of the season.
“We weren’t playing good enough at that time to beat them,” Guidry said. “(Against) Southeastern, we were, (against) Stephen F. (Austin) we weren’t. We weren’t playing well enough on either side of the ball at that point, like we were at the end of the year.”
Therein lies, perhaps, the most frustrating aspect of Guidry’s first season. The end of the season, when Hill returned and Tabary finally received aid from a previously dormant running game and a more cohesive offensive line, displayed the potential possessed from its outset.
Derailing it was the understandable rigors of a coaching change. Guidry’s new staff needed the spring and some of the fall to implement their own manner of running day-to-day operations. Tabary didn’t arrive until the fall and, though he assimilated quickly, was still refining the intricacies of his reads with receivers well into the season.
Two of the team’s four leading receivers — Darious Crawley and Parker Orgeron — didn’t arrive until the fall, either. Chemistry was built on the field in games that counted rather than on the practice field, leading to the early season struggles.
“Obviously you always want to win and want to go 11-0, knowing that for most schools in the country that that’s not going to happen,” athletic director Bruce Hemphill said last week when asked to evaluate Guidry’s first season. “Overall, I am pleased. We had injuries, some inexperience and a new staff together, too, for the first time. There’s always going to be some questions that come up during the course of the year.”
And, as Hemphill noted, Guidry navigated the year while balancing emotions far greater than football. Former defensive back Aaron Sam, whom Guidry coached as defensive coordinator, was murdered during a home invasion three weeks before the season.
Hours before the team’s Oct. 15 meeting with Central Arkansas — the Southland Conference’s top defense — Guidry learned his brother, Larry, died unexpectedly. He coached despite the news while his family grieved inside his office on the second floor of the Jack Doland Field House.
Guidry’s 92-year-old grandfather died two days later. He missed an entire week of practice to be with his family, returning to coach the team’s 48-27 win against Northwestern State on Oct. 22.
“Very well,” Hemphill said of the way Guidry handled himself. “I think what’s helped is the fact that he’s from this area, knows so many people, so many players, so many high school coaches that I think it all was a fit.”
Guidry spoke last week from the recruiting trail, rejuvenated after that rest and with the end of the season still in the forefront of his mind.
“All in all, I think we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish as far as growing into next year,” Guidry said. “Because I think our full potential will be next year, how good we can be.”
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